Russian singer Joseph Kobzon

DONETSK, eastern Ukraine, October 27 /TASS/. Joseph Kobzon, the People’s Artist of the USSR and a Russian State Duma deputy, gave a 2-hour concert at the national Opera and Ballet Theatre in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. The repertoire included dozens of Soviet and Russian hits.

A day before, the Kiev authorities had banned Kobzon from entering Ukraine. In an interview with TASS Kobzon said that he was going to visit his native region of Donbas and meet the wonderful people.

"Who asks for a visa to go home? I am not asking for a visa. I am just going home,” the singer told TASS.

“Donbas is my small motherland. I met the Great Victory (in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945) in Slavyansk and went to school in Kramatorsk. Donbas is my home. It is impossible to put Donbas on its knees. No one can do that,” Kobzon said from the stage.

At the request of Alexander Zakharchenko, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Kobzon devoted one of his new songs “Moscow-Donbas” to the Donbas region.

On Tuesday, the singer will give a similar concert in Luhansk.

Joseph Kobzon was born in the town of Chasov Yar in the Donetsk region. He is an honorary citizen of Donetsk, Slavyansk, Makeyevka, Kramatorsk, Artyomovska, Gorlovka and other towns and cities of the Donetsk region.